Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
By signing up, you certify that you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.

Accused President Obama‚Äôs health care law of funneling money away
from Medicare ‚Äúat the expense of the elderly.‚ÄĚ In fact, Medicare‚Äôs chief
actuary says the law ‚Äúsubstantially improves‚ÄĚ the system‚Äôs finances,
and Ryan himself has embraced the same savings.

Accused Obama of doing ‚Äúexactly nothing‚ÄĚ about recommendations of a
bipartisan deficit commission ‚ÄĒ which Ryan himself helped scuttle.

Claimed the American people were ‚Äúcut out‚ÄĚ of stimulus spending.
Actually, more than a quarter of all stimulus dollars went for tax
relief for workers.

Faulted Obama for failing to deliver a 2008 campaign promise to keep
a Wisconsin plant open. It closed less than a month before Obama took
office.

Blamed Obama for the loss of a AAA credit rating for the U.S.
Actually, Standard & Poor‚Äôs blamed the downgrade on the
uncompromising stands of both Republicans and Democrats.

And when he wasn‚Äôt attacking Obama, Ryan was puffing up the record of his running mate, Mitt Romney, on taxes and unemployment.

Note to Readers

Our deputy managing editor, Robert Farley, is on the scene in Tampa
at the convention center. This story was written with the help of the
entire staff, based in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Next week,
we will dispatch our managing editor, Lori Robertson, to Charlotte,
N.C., for the Democratic convention. We intend to vet the major
speeches at both conventions for factual accuracy, applying the same
standards to both.

Taking Money from Medicare?

Ryan continued the campaign‚Äôs false line of attack that Obama had
‚Äúfunneled‚ÄĚ money out of Medicare to pay for the federal health care law
‚Äúat the expense of the elderly.‚ÄĚ But that‚Äôs contradicted by Medicare‚Äôs
chief actuary, in a statement at the end of the most recent report of the system‚Äôs trustees (our emphasis added):

Medicare Actuary, April 23, 2012: [Obama's] Affordable Care Act makes important changes to the Medicare program and substantially improves its financial outlook ‚Ä¶

Medicare‚Äôs money isn‚Äôt being taken away.
The Affordable Care Act calls for slowing the growth in spending, a
move that ‚ÄĒ if successful ‚ÄĒ would keep the hospital insurance trust
fund solvent for longer than if the reductions didn‚Äôt happen.

Ryan, Aug. 29: And
the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the
expense of the elderly. ‚Ä¶ [T]hey just took it all away from Medicare,
$716 billion funneled out of Medicare by President Obama.

The Affordable Care Act calls for a $716 billion reduction in the future growth of Medicare spending over 10 years, with most of that ‚ÄĒ about $415 billion
‚ÄĒ coming from a reduction in the future growth of payments to hospitals
through Medicare Part A. And Medicare Part A‚Äôs trust fund, as we‚Äôve explained before,
is in trouble financially. It‚Äôs set to be insolvent in 2024, even with
these spending cuts. Without them, the trust fund wouldn‚Äôt be able to
fully pay projected benefits in 2016, the Medicare trustees estimate.

Deficit Commission

Ryan accused Obama of doing ‚Äúexactly nothing‚ÄĚ about recommendations
from a bipartisan presidential commission to reduce the deficit. But
Ryan himself was among a minority of commission members whose opposition
scuttled the plan and prevented it from being sent automatically to
Congress for action.

Ryan: He created a new bipartisan debt
commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanks them, sent
them on their way, and then did exactly nothing. Republicans stepped up
with good-faith reforms and solutions equal to the problems. How did
the president respond? By doing nothing ‚ÄĒ nothing except to dodge and
demagogue the issue.

The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform‚Äôs report
proposed deep spending cuts in both domestic and military spending, and
an overhaul of the tax code that would have lowered rates but raised
revenues ‚ÄĒ all in an attempt to slow the growth of government by $4
trillion over 10 years.

Many Republicans, including Ryan, opposed the military cuts and new
tax revenue, while many Democrats opposed changes to Social Security
that included raising the full retirement age.

The 18-member commission needed a super majority of 14 votes in order
to bring the report to a vote in Congress. But it received the support of just 11 members. Seven members, including Ryan, opposed it, thus blocking congressional action.

In a statement
on the final report, Ryan said he ‚Äúcould not support the plan in its
entirety,‚ÄĚ but said some elements of it were ‚Äúworthy of further
pursuit.‚ÄĚ

Ryan opposed the commission‚Äôs approach to paying for lower federal
income tax rates by taxing capital gains and dividends as ordinary
income (see footnote on page 29). In his own latest budget plan, Ryan proposed
to keep the current capital gains tax rate, arguing that to do
otherwise ‚Äúcould precipitate a flight of capital away from job-creating
businesses.‚ÄĚ

Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, tried to work out
a so-called ‚ÄúGrand Bargain‚ÄĚ that would have reduced the deficit
through a mix of tax hikes and spending cuts ‚ÄĒ and even changes to
Social Security. The New York Timesreported that the Grand Bargain would have raised the retirement age and changed the formula for calculating benefits. But, as the Times reported, the deal fell through as members of Boehner‚Äôs caucus objected to raising taxes.

In short, both Ryan and Obama have proposed deficit-reduction plans ‚ÄĒ and each opposed the other‚Äôs plan.

Stimulus Deceit

Ryan falsely claimed that the stimulus failed to help taxpayers and
that it ‚Äúcut out‚ÄĚ the American people. Actually, more than 25 percent of
stimulus dollars went to provide tax relief for workers.

Ryan: [The stimulus] cost $831 billion.
The largest one-time expenditure ever by our federal government. ‚Ä¶
You, the American people of this country, were cut out of the deal.

The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation calculated that about $230 billion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided tax relief. Much of that money, about $116 billion, funded the Making Work Pay tax credit for workers. In 2009 and 2010, the credit gave up to $400 to individuals earning up to $75,000, and gave up to $800 to couples earning up to $150,000.

Janesville Plant Closing

Ryan cited the closing of a GM plant in his hometown of Janesville,
Wis., as evidence of Obama‚Äôs failing to deliver on promises made in the
2008 presidential campaign. But as it happens, the plant closed before
Obama even took office.

Ryan: My own state voted for President
Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it,
especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory.

A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant.
Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: ‚ÄúI believe that if our
government is there to support you, this plant will be here for another
hundred years.‚ÄĚ That‚Äôs what he said in 2008.

Well, as it turned out, that plant didn‚Äôt last another year. It is
locked up and empty to this day. And that‚Äôs how it is in so many towns
today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.

Here‚Äôs what Obama told workers during a campaign stop at the struggling GM plant in Janesville back in 2008:

Obama, Feb. 13, 2008: And I believe that
if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance
you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be
here for another hundred years. The question is not whether a clean
energy economy is in our future, it‚Äôs where it will thrive. I want it to
thrive ‚Ä¶

It‚Äôs true that the plant didn‚Äôt last another year, as Ryan said. In fact, the Business Journal in Milwaukee wrote
that the assembly plant shut down on Dec. 23, 2008, at the tail end of
the Bush administration, a victim of the financial crisis and
dwindling demand for the SUVs produced at the plant. That‚Äôs nearly one
month before Obama was sworn into office.

Ryan faulted Obama for a credit downgrade for which Ryan‚Äôs own party
shares equal responsibility. Ryan said that ‚Äúa presidency that began
with such anticipation now comes to such a disappointing close,‚ÄĚ adding:

Ryan, Aug. 29: [Obama's presidency] began with a perfect AAA credit rating for the United States; it ends with the downgraded America.

Ryan refers to the decision of Standard & Poor‚Äôs, the credit
rating agency, to downgrade its score for U.S. Treasury obligations from
AAA to AA+ on Aug. 5, 2011. That took place just four days after Congress voted to raise the federal debt ceiling,
following lengthy negotiations in which House Republicans sought to
force concessions from Obama and Senate Democrats as the price for
raising the ceiling and averting the first default on Treasury debt
payments in U.S. history.

S&P, Aug. 5, 2011: The political
brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America‚Äôs
governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and
less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt
ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips
in the debate over fiscal policy. ‚Ä¶

Republicans and Democrats have only been able to agree to relatively
modest savings on discretionary spending while delegating to the Select
Committee [of Congress] decisions on more comprehensive measures. It
appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of
policy options.

Ryan, of course, is among those Republicans opposed to any ‚Äúnew revenues‚ÄĚ from tax increases.

Puffing Up Romney‚Äôs Record

Running through Romney‚Äôs credentials, Ryan boasted about Romney‚Äôs
fiscal and jobs record as governor of Massachusetts. But there‚Äôs a bit
less there than Ryan lets on.

Ryan: He was the Republican governor of
a state where almost nine in 10 legislators are Democrats, and yet he
balanced the budget without raising taxes. Unemployment went down,
household incomes went up, and Massachusetts, under Gov. Mitt Romney,
saw its credit rating upgraded.

It‚Äôs true that Romney balanced the state budget every year ‚ÄĒ as Massachusetts‚Äô Constitution requires ‚ÄĒ and Romney never raised personal income taxes. But as we have notedwhenever
this claim has arisen ‚ÄĒ which has been frequently ‚ÄĒ Romney did hike
government fees by hundreds of millions of dollars, and he also closed
loopholes on some corporate taxes.

Ryan also said that under Romney, ‚Äúunemployment went down.‚ÄĚ That‚Äôs true. According to unemployment data
from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in
Massachusetts went from 5.6 percent when Romney took office in January
2003 to 4.6 percent when he left office in January 2007.

But when considered in light of an improving national economy,
Romney‚Äôs record on unemployment is a bit less impressive. Massachusetts‚Äô
unemployment rate was slightly lower than the national rate when
Romney took office, and it was roughly the same as the national rate
when he left.

Unfortunately I don't have time to correct all of these points (some have already been corrected though I guess you missed that)that you so expertly cut and pasted. LOL It's easily done though if you have the time. I'm sure you don't really know one way or another if these are true do you?

I did not cut anything out you have the web link look it up .Yes I do know them to be the truth read on look up site if you dare .Even fox news correspondence said he lied .Dont know how long she will have her job after saying that . Look it up type in Paul Ryans speech in 3 words fox news . But I am probly making that up to .

Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
By signing up, you certify that you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.